


Build Me A City & Call It Jerusalem

by redbrunja



Category: Johannes Cabal - Jonathan L. Howard
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-13
Updated: 2013-07-13
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:02:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbrunja/pseuds/redbrunja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re unresponsive to treatment,” the golem said, dragging Leonie across the marble floor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Build Me A City & Call It Jerusalem

**Author's Note:**

  * For [qualapec](https://archiveofourown.org/users/qualapec/gifts).



“You’re unresponsive to treatment,” the golem said, dragging Leonie across the marble floor. She stabbed at its face, trying to mar the glowing symbol at its forehead which animated it. The butter knife she’d tucked up her sleeve at lunch bent and then broke.   
  
The golem continued its implacable progress towards the fountain in the center of the lobby.  
  
Leonie struggled like an angry cat, kicking, scratching, biting but nothing slowed or broke its grip, one hand holding her throat, the other wrapped around her upper arm, both painful. He reached the fountain and without fanfare, placed her under the water, held her down.  
  
Contrary to popular mythology, her life didn’t flash before her eyes. In her subjective (she carefully thought that qualifier) perception, time slowed down. She felt like she continued to struggle for a long period of time and then, lungs burning, her body decided it was too much bother, and her limbs fall slack.  
  
Her lungs felt like they were on fire but the pain was very far away, less important than the white spots swaying across her vision.  
  
Not even six inches from her face, the water of the fountain stilled, and she could see the golem’s blank face, the glowing symbol blazing. She could hear the muffled burbling of the water and then a dull crack.  
  
The golem crumpled, falling apart into chunks of earth and Leonie closed her eyes reflexively, realizing the sound she’d just heard had been a gunshot, that a message sent from a falsely committed inmate of a mental institution had reached the necromancer she’d sent it to.   
  
She opened her eyes to find herself coughing hoarsely into Cabal’s chest, both of them sprawled on the marble floor in a tangle. She patted his chest gratefully, unable to manage a verbal thank you, all of her concentration on her ragged breathing, the way the air tore at her raw throat.  
  
Cabal kept repeating a name, as he gently stroked her sodden hair away from her forehead, as he kissed Leonie’s cold lips; but the name wasn’t hers.


End file.
